


a grand theft

by Embers



Category: B.A.P, K-pop
Genre: 90's AU, Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Daddy Issues, Drifter!Yongguk, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Past Abuse, Runaway!Daehyun, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 19:42:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2282220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Embers/pseuds/Embers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yongguk is nothing that Daehyun needs, and most definitely shouldn't be what he wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a grand theft

**Author's Note:**

> Finally stopped being lazy and posted this here. Initially posted on my AFF.
> 
> Warnings: Brief language, some smoking/drinking, mentioned past abuse (physical/psychological), implied/vague sexual content (nothing explicit), teenage Daehyun, bad decision making.
> 
> ***Extraction and re-posting to other sites for reading/download from A03 in any form is strictly prohibited.

 

Spring is slowly making itself known, but the night air is still biting.

Daehyun wishes he had thought to bring a thicker coat, but it hadn’t seemed of importance when he’d been throwing things into a worn duffle and his backpack just hours before.

He wondered how long it would take before his father realized he was gone, what he would do when it became clear.

He wishes he were more sure about leaving the man who had taken one look at his split lip the month before, said _I told you so_ and asked why he insisted on making things hard for himself.

That had been one of the better days.

Now, there’s barely enough for a few good meals in his wallet, not enough to take him anywhere beyond the city and he’s trying to go as far as he can. He’d left the train station with a paper cup of coffee and had migrated to the old taxi stand just across the road as he sipped at the beverage. That had been ages ago and the warmth had long left his hands, feeling emptying out of him like the passengers disappearing from the station, one by one until he is left alone.

He walks along the old road that runs alongside the train tracks, barely used and isolated at this time of night.

He hears a far off rumble, and looks behind him.

Two headlights, getting closer.

Daehyun can’t see much besides that, but he holds his arm out, waving it up and down.

The vehicle, a truck he now sees, is driving slowly and he waves more frantically as it nears.

“Hey!”

Daehyun yells at the truck, it’s the first one he’s seen in all the time he’d been out there, and his hands are nearly about to freeze off.

“Please stop!”

It doesn’t.

But Daehyun is desperate enough to jog after it, yelling as loud as he can as it slowly passes.

“Please!”

He’s about to give up when two spots of red light up, and he realizes it had stopped some distance away. He hesitates for a second but jogs forward at the thought that he might be left alone again.

Daehyun comes up to the driver’s side window, aware this was probably a terribly stupid idea, but he can’t bring himself to care at the moment.

He can see a figure inside and slowly the window is rolled down, the man inside regarding him with a bored eye, plump lips downturned and face impassive.

Daehyun isn’t quite sure how to go about this sort of thing, so he just blurts it out.

“I need a ride to Seoul.”

The man blinks, and when he finally speaks it reminds Daehyun of an old film reel, slow and grainy, as if the voice hadn’t been used in years.

“Why?”

“Why?” Daehyun parrots, “I- just…need to get there, that’s all. Does it matter?”

The man raises a brow, “It does. If I’m taking you.”

Daehyun blinks, “Will you?”

The man turns his head to look ahead, at the wide empty road and Daehyun tries to be patient as the cold air hits his face.

“You can ride with me. Can’t promise I’ll be going to Seoul, though.”

 

* * *

 

His name is Yongguk.

And that’s about all Daehyun learns.

He looks around as the man drives, craning his neck when he catches sight of a few crumpled cans in the back, the smell of stale beer reaching his nose as it wrinkles.

“Do you…drink in your car?”

“I live in my car.”

“You…what?”

Yongguk throws him a look but doesn’t repeat himself and Daehyun is left to ponder what the appropriate response is to such a revelation.

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does if I’m riding with you.”

Yonggu’s smile is faint, but it’s there.

 

* * *

 

Yongguk isn’t much of a conversationalist, and Daehyun doesn’t quite know what to talk about anyway. He can’t remember the last time he spoke to anyone for any significant length of time.

He sneaks glances at the elder from time to time and wonders at the man’s age. He doesn’t look particularly old, though his clothes are plain and lacking the style of the city youth and there is a heaviness about him that comes with experience.

Still, Yongguk is handsome, if a little haggard looking, and actually quite clean. It’s not what Daehyun expects from someone who is essentially homeless.

They spend most of the ride in total silence, and Daehyun might feel more awkward about it if his mind wasn’t so occupied already.

Yongguk stops a short while later, just outside the city limits, and for a second Daehyun thinks this is where it happens, where he is murdered or robbed or whatever it is that drifters do with strange boys they find on the side of the road.

Yongguk pulls the keys out of the ignition and pockets them. He looks around at the area they are in, barren and dark. Daehyun swallows.

“I’ll sleep now.”

The voice is a low rumble and Yongguk crawls past him to the back seat of the truck where he lies out across the seat, pulling an old sweater around him.

Daehyun stares incredulously, “I…um…”

The man pulls a small pillow from somewhere and settles, “You can sleep, too. I can drop you off somewhere tomorrow, if you want. But you have nowhere to go, anyway, am I right?”

Daehyun doesn’t respond and soon enough, he is left alone to his thoughts.

 

* * *

 

The first night away is hell.

Daehyun sits up front, curled up in the slightly reclined passenger seat and staring out the window at the night sky while Yongguk dozes in the back. His back hurts almost as much as his heart. He doesn’t sleep. Couldn’t even if he wanted to.

He left.

He actually left.

The idea of leaving, of escaping the gilded cage his father kept him in had been in his mind for a while, a vague idea he liked to take out on especially cloudy days, but his actions that night had been rather spur of the moment.

He loved his father.

Loved him so much he left him first because, after everything, the reverse would have broken him completely.

He sits for hours, staring at the empty landscape and allowing the cold to seep into his veins.

He doesn’t know what to do now.

The morning light is more forgiving, soft, warm, and slow to greet him, but even as sensation returns to him he doesn’t know where he is.

Yongguk is awake, observing Daehyun’s profile as he stretches the knots out of his body, something like knowing in his eyes.

“Want to stay?”

There is dew on the windows, and sun streaming in through the clouds. It feels cleansing, like rebirth.

“Okay.”

 

* * *

 

By the evening, Daehyun decides Yongguk must not be so bad. If he were going to do something horrible, he’d had plenty of time already, and so far the worst thing about Yongguk seemed to be his penchant for long pauses and an addiction to cigarettes that Daehyun did not share.

Yongguk hadn’t asked Daehyun much after he’d decided to stay and for this he is grateful, because he doesn’t know quite what he’s doing himself.

They had stopped by a food stand and Daehyun had bought a small serving of vegetable noodles, trying to stretch the meager contents of his wallet as far as they would allow. He hadn’t thought to buy something to drink and now he is parched.

Yongguk sips at his beer beside him as they lounge in the back seat and Daehyun eyes the can.

He doesn’t find the stuff particularly appealing, but he’s thirsty.

“Can I have some?”

“No.”

“I’m seventeen!” Daehyun says, sounding childish even to his own ears as he mumbles out the rest of his sentence, “I’m not… _that_ underage.”

Yongguk scoffs.

“Do I look like I give a shit about that? Maybe I just don’t want to share my beer with some kid I just met.”

Daehyun pouts, “I’m thirsty, hyung.”

Yongguk sighs before holding the can out and Daehyun smiles sweetly, taking a few sips before grimacing at the taste and handing it back. There is something like a laugh dancing on Yongguk’s features.

“Shouldn’t you be in school, or something?”

Daehyun slurps at his noodles and looks up through his fringe, “Shouldn’t you have a house?”

Yongguk does laugh lightly at this and gulps down the rest of his beer. He looks past Daehyun, out the window and at the empty car park they’re in for the night.

“I don’t remember much of high school,” he says thoughtfully.

Daehyun raises a brow, “That long ago? What, like…five years?”

Yongguk looks at him, amused.

“Ten?”

The elder raises a brow.

“… _More_?”

Yongguk nods once and Daehyun balks.

They spend the rest of the night talking, and though Daehyun is the one doing most of it, he finds the frost inside him melting more and more.

But he isn’t sure if that’s a good thing.

 

* * *

 

When Daehyun realizes he has been gone for almost four days, something in him snaps. His mind is all over the place. Paranoid, sad, anxious. Worried about his father, worried for himself and angry that he feels the former.

He hasn’t said anything to Yongguk but his troubled mind must be obvious because Yongguk actually talks first, eyes still on the road in front of him.

“Calm down, kit.”

Yongguk is in a constant state of “calm”, a mindset Daehyun blames on being a flower child of the sixties. He supposes you have to be quite laid back to be able to live comfortably in a motor vehicle, living day to day, but Daehyun isn’t quite there yet.

“Don’t call me that.”

“I’ll call you whatever the fuck I want, _kit_.”

Daehyun scowls.

His stomach grumbles, loud in the sudden silence of the car and he flushes, wrapping an arm around his stomach and mumbling an apology.

His father, if nothing else, had always provided a well-stocked kitchen and he wasn’t used to this sort of burning ache. He expects the elder to ignore it, but the deep voice he had been getting used to rumbles from his side.

“Hungry?”

“I- I don’t have anything.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

 

* * *

 

He helps Yongguk out.

Yongguk makes a living taking odd jobs here and there and gets referrals from a staffing agency. It’s not hard to get the agency to take him on, too, it doesn’t exactly seem like the most reputable place but they hardly get requests for anything but the most menial of tasks or manual labour.

They make more money this way, being able to do two man jobs, though it still isn’t anything to brag about.

Days are spent driving to different towns and getting to work on whatever they’re needed for and evenings are spent finding a place to settle for the night, sometimes walking around the area they’re in, or lounging in the back of the truck as the sun sets.

Tonight they remain inside, the world outside damp and cold from the spring showers that had rolled in that afternoon.

Yongguk puffs on a cigarette, windows down, but the smoke still hangs in the air in the absence of any wind. Daehyun waves a hand in front of his face as the elder blows out another stream of smoke into the truck.

“Can you maybe smoke outside the car?”

Yongguk gives him a look.

“No one’s making you stay.”

Daehyun tilts his head, “Do you want me to leave?”

Yongguk doesn’t say anything for a moment, but when he does it’s neither the rejection Daehyun dreads nor the affirmation he wants.

“You should.”

 

* * *

 

That night, Daehyun dreams of returning.

He dreams of walking in through the front door, the house just as he left it; an unfinished dinner on the kitchen counter and a basket of fresh laundry by the dryer.

He walks up the staircase, stilling when he reaches the top.

There’s a figure at the end of the upstairs hallway, tall and imposing.

What follows is a carbon copy of the last time he had seen the man, before he had left to his room, cheek smarting and red as he turned away from the closed door.

The very last words he had heard from his father that night, before the man disappeared into his office, shutting and locking the door as he always did, ring out in his consciousness.

_You look just like her_

And now Daehyun had broken his heart just like her, too.

 

* * *

 

The first time it happens, Yongguk is drunk.

Daehyun isn’t a virgin, but he hasn’t had anything remotely close to sex since last summer, before his father found out about him and left him with a black eye and bruised ribs and before his first (and last) boyfriend showed up to school with a pretty girl on his arm and spent the next year ignoring any of Daehyun’s attempts to talk to him. Just like everyone else.

When Yongguk pushes him down against the seat Daehyun isn’t sure what he wants to be reality; Yongguk to be unaware of his actions or the sudden sobriety in his un-slurred words and steady hands. The elder’s eyes are curiously sharp as he bends towards Daehyun’s neck, bared as he gasps at the feeling of hands on his waist and tugging off his clothes.

He welcomes the way Yongguk takes from him because he has so much to give and no one wants any of it.

“You’re real pretty, kit.”

The words are gravel against his throat.

“I’ll ruin you.”

Daehyun can’t tell if it’s a warning or a promise.

 

* * *

 

“We need some food.”

Yongguk had been using the word we more often, and it makes Daehyun’s chest feel like it’s expanding. It is no different today, though it doesn’t last when he returns to the present.

“We don’t have enough money.”

There hadn’t been many jobs this week. Yongguk sometimes made extra money hustling pool in badly lit bars, assuming it was a good night. Last night hadn’t been.

“I’m sure you’d have an easier time that I would walking out of there with something.”

Daehyun’s brow furrows and he peeks into the convenience store across the street, there’s only one person by the counter, an elderly man slowly counting out change to a lone customer.

He knows what Yongguk’s asking.

“I don’t think…I can’t-”

Yongguk’s hand settles in his hair, scratching the scalp comfortingly and Daehyun stills, “Don’t think of it like that, kit. We can’t starve, can we? You can come back and spend as much as you want here later when you actually have some dough.”

He looks up at the man, uncertain, “But…”

“Look, I’d do it myself, but with this cute face?” Yongguk cuffs Daehyun lightly under the chin, grinning at the blush that blooms across his face, “You’ll get out of there scot free.”

He does it.

Follows Yongguk’s instructions and goes in, hides away some bread, packs of ramen, and drinks, before grabbing a couple of the cheapest things and paying for those up at the front.

The old man smiles at him and makes light conversation and Daehyun can’t look him in the eyes as he walks out the door with a whispered thank you.

When he returns, Yongguk drives a distance away, to a nearby park before stopping and grinning at the younger. He opens the bag and surveys the contents with an approving nod.

“You did good, kit.”

And then Yongguk kisses him.

Not on the mouth, but against his temple, smiling as he pulls away and then surprise is colouring his features when Daehyun leans back in impulsively, crawling into his space and winding skinny arms around his neck.

It’s early in the day and Yongguk tastes minty sweet, like the toothpaste he keeps in the glove compartment, and Daehyun’s hands are already fumbling with the buckle on the elder’s belt as he slides from his lap.

When he looks up from beneath his lashes, Yongguk is looking at him with some new emotion.

It’s not nearly enough, but it has to be for now.

 

* * *

 

When Daehyun is idle, he thinks.

He remembers.

He remembers when he learned that love could be painful.

Daehyun’s face still hurt the next day, skin tight around the small wounds, and his father had come into his room, shirt sleeves rolled up tanned forearms and tie tugged loose around his neck.

Daehyun had stood on shaky feet and the man had grabbed him, pulled on his arm and forced him to sit at the edge of his bed before pulling the desk chair up in front of him, a small tube of ointment in his hands.

_Do you think he loves you? He’ll just leave like everyone else, that’s what people do._

Rough fingers gently applied the cream to his face, by his jaw and around his brow where the injury is worst.

Then a large palm cupped his cheek, thumb stroking mottled skin as piercing eyes stare into his own.

_They’re gone, Daehyunnie. They didn’t care about you or me, and now they’re gone. I’m the only one who’s ever loved you._

His hair was pushed off his forehead, and his father had pulled him forward, resting his chin atop Daehyun’s crown as he combed through soft hair and whispered words that settled over Daehyun like a particularly heavy blanket.

_I’m the only one who ever will._

 

* * *

 

Yongguk speaks more often now, but most of the time Daehyun is left with more questions than answers.

The elder’s voice is smoother than it had been that first night and Daehyun wonders just how long he went without speaking to people before Daehyun came along, wonders how much more they have in common.

“Were you good at it? School?”

Daehyun shrugs, “I’m average. Sometimes slightly better than. I’m not that smart or anything, I just…didn’t have much else to do besides homework. And my dad, he- it made him happy. When I did well.”

He stares out the window, at the streetlights now turning on and the sign flashing _OPEN_ outside a video rental store they pass and he tries not to think of Friday nights long ago, and his tiny hand in secure in a larger one, a movie clutched to his chest and the promise of all the snacks he could want in his heart as two other sets of footsteps followed.

“So,” he changes the focus, “Were you always a drifter?”

Yongguk doesn’t actually mind conversation. There are times when he has a lot to say, even if some of it goes over Daehyun’s head.

“No.”

But you have to coax him.

“How did this…happen?”

Yongguk doesn’t say anything for a while and Daehyun is about to give up and go back to fiddling with the radio tuner before he finally answers.

“There were things I wanted to do.”

He stops after this, sighs, and Daehyun sees the dial on the odometer rise a little, the cityscape moving by them just a little faster as Yongguk runs from something in his mind.

“Some things just aren’t meant to be.”

 

* * *

 

Every couple of weeks, they scrounge up enough for a motel room.

Daehyun’s thankful he’ll finally get to shower somewhere other than a public bath until he sees the room and realizes the other option might have been cleaner. Still, he takes advantage of the privacy.

He runs a hand across the fogged up mirror and takes a good look at himself in the dull surface.

He’s lost weight, his cheeks missing their fullness, and it makes all his features stand out more. His dark hair is beginning to fall into his eyes, and his skin has lost some of its glow, but it’s not as bad as he’s been expecting.

Slipping into fresh clothes, he waits on the bed as Yongguk freshens up, body spread out as he enjoys the feeling of a mattress, no matter how cheap. Yongguk returns from his shower, youthful looking with his hair newly trimmed and skin sporting the glow only a long, hot shower could bring.

Daehyun crawls on top of him the second the elder lies down, nuzzling at his neck and running hands down the tanned, bare chest.

“Whoa, kit,” Yongguk keeps one arm behind his head, and the other rests around Daehyun’s waist, “Hey, you realize it’s only four in the afternoon, right? Let a guy straighten out his back first.”

Daehyun flops onto his back with a huff, mumbling the words _old man_ and curling away as Yongguk grins and swats at his thigh. The elder grabs the remote and turns on the old TV in front of the bed as Daehyun returns to his side, close enough to feel the heat from the elder’s body.

They watch some variety show, Daehyun alternately looking at the grainy picture and Yongguk’s face, relishing in the gummy smile that lights it up every so often.

In moments like this he can forget that he is nothing more than a stowaway, that Yongguk is keeping him around because he’s been useful and perhaps he’s taken a liking to him, but Daehyun knows how fast things like that can change.

Yongguk eventually nods off to the sound of recorded laughter and Daehyun slides right up against him, ear pressed to the man’s heartbeat. He takes comfort in the steady sound and the rise and fall of Yongguk’s chest, hand curling against golden skin.

He doesn’t realize he’s fallen asleep until he feels a fingers dancing along his back and he squirms at the feeling as his eyes flutter open. The room is coated in the orange of the setting sun, and his body with the warmth of the one next to him.

He blinks tiredly up at Yongguk, and the elder stares back.

“Did I fall asleep on you? Sorry…” he’s about to shift away when arms wind around his waist and slide him beneath a larger body.

Soon, Daehyun undulates above the elder, hands on Yongguk’s shoulders as the man sits against the headboard, palms on the soft skin of the teen’s thighs. Daehyun leans forward and hides his face against the elder’s wide neck, breathing into the tanned skin.

“Hyung… _oh_ …”

Yongguk’s hands travel, one gripping a sharp hip bone and the other sliding up Daehyun’s spine to curl around his nape.

“What is it, Daehyunnie?”

Daehyun mewls and then he’s moving faster, breathing stifled with gasps until he collapses against the torso in front of him.

It’s the first time Yongguk’s said his name.

_Daehyunnie_

He falls onto his back, breathing shallow. He doesn’t even realize there are tears falling from his eyes until Yongguk is leaning over him and brushing them away.

“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

Daehyun shakes his head, hands covering his face as he sobs, “I- I’m so… _bad_. I’m terrible, a horrible person…”

“You’re not.”

He shoves the elder’s hands away, curling in on himself, “How would you know that? You don’t know what I’ve done…”

“Whatever it was, I’m sure it was for a good reason. I’ve met a lot of bad people, kit. And you don’t seem like one,” Yongguk runs a thumb across his swollen upper lip, pink and trembling, guilt flashing across his features, “and you’re beautiful. So don’t cry, alright?”

 

* * *

 

Daehyun wakes to loud banging on the door and yelling outside

He barely has enough time to open his eyes before Yongguk is sitting up, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

“ _Fuck_ …”

The banging gets louder and this time Daehyun can hear someone calling Yongguk’s name, clear as day.

“H-hyung? What’s going on?”

Yongguk sighs, looking around before he finally stands and heads towards the door.

“It’s fine. Just…stay there.”

Daehyun’s hands are shaking as he clenches the sheets around him, heart thudding in his chest. The elder opens the door slightly and it slams against the wall as two men walk in, one of them pushes Yongguk further into the room as the door swings shut behind them.

“Well? You know what I‘m here for.”

Yongguk holds his hands up, “Just….give me a second alright? I’ll get my bag.”

Daehyun watches as Yongguk crosses the room and rummages through his bag, not noticing the taller of the two men looking at him curiously until he speaks.

“Didn’t think you were this type of guy, Yongguk.”

Daehyun flushes as Yongguk returns with a wad of cash and the man throws him a smirk before he focuses on counting the bills that have been handed to him. The smaller of the two, muscular and with a broad but boyish face, regards him for a second longer with something resembling concern.

Daehyun swallows, shifting as he eyes the bills in the man’s elegant hands, somewhere around five hundred thousand won from the looks of it. Where had Yongguk been keeping that cash? He supposed the elder had a right to save whatever he wanted but when he thinks of the old man at the convenience store and the heaviness of his pockets as he left, he feels slighted. He looks to Yongguk curiously but the elder isn’t meeting his gaze.

The man folds the bills neatly, tucking them inside his suit jacket before training sharp eyes on Yongguk once more.

“Where’s the rest?”

“I just need a little more time.”

“You’ve had time, Yongguk. And now you’re wasting mine. I want my money.”

“Please, Himchan-”

The man glares and stalks forward, “Who do you think you are?”

Daehyun looks between them, can see the anger rising in the stranger’s eyes and he makes a choice.

“Wait!”

The man looks at him, brow furrowed as he takes in the slight figure on the bed.

Daehyun slides out from under the sheets, glad he had thought to put on a pair of boxer-briefs and tossed on a hoodie when it got cold the night before, and walks to his own bag. There isn’t much in his wallet, but the room was paid for and they still had some food left over that would last them a day or two.

He walks towards the two men, shy as he stands before them half dressed, hair in disarray and torso marked.

“H-how much?”

The two men share a look before the taller, Himchan, speaks.

“Another two hundred thousand.”

He looks into his wallet and pulls out the few bills that are there, only about half of the stated amount and his entire wage for the last few days.

“This is all I have.”

Himchan eyes the hand in front of him, holding out the money and trembling slightly. He turns back to Yongguk with a raised brow.

“You gonna let this kid pay your debt off?”

Yongguk’s eyes flicker briefly to his but he says nothing.

Himchan shakes his head and scoffs, turning back to Daehyun, whose hands are still awkwardly holding out the crumpled bills. He reaches out and curls Daehyun’s hand around the money, pushing it back towards his chest.

He looks like he wants to say something more, but he turns to Yongguk instead, walking into his space and staring him down, voice like shards of ice.

“You have one month. And that’s it.”

 

* * *

 

“I didn’t mean for things to turn out that way.”

_I didn’t mean for this to happen._

“I had to pay him back, so I’d been saving little by little. I couldn’t use that money.”

_I just let things get the better of me. I don’t want to hurt you, you know that’s the last thing I want._

“You understand right, kit?”

_You understand, don’t you?_

Daehyun nods.

 

* * *

 

Daehyun is taciturn for the next couple of days, but he’s never been able to hold a grudge. It’s always been his undoing.

There are times when they don’t have enough money for gas, and Yongguk will find a good place to park the truck where they won’t be ticketed until they can move on again. But during especially lean days, there isn’t much left for anything else either.

Yongguk himself doesn’t eat much, and Daehyun is willing to go without if it means he doesn’t have to steal again.

But everyone has their limits, and Daehyun finds himself walking out of small stores with heavy pockets more often than he’d like.

He doesn’t ask Yongguk to do it instead, doesn’t ask why the elder can’t drink and smoke less instead, because it’s not his place and Yongguk is already doing so much for him, keeping him off the street.

He’s leaning against the man’s chest as they lay on a blanket in the back of the truck, looking up at the night sky. The elder isn’t exactly holding him, doesn’t particularly like to engage physically unless it was for sex, but his legs are encasing Daehyun between them and it almost makes him remember what hugs feel like.

One of Yongguk’s arms rests on the truck’s edge, a beer in the other that he occasionally holds out for Daehyun to take. The park they are in is up on a hill, overlooking the city and isolated. It’s one of the nicest places they’ve set up camp so far.

Daehyun won’t pretend this will last forever, but in this moment of suspended time, it feels close enough.

 

* * *

 

He’s never been lucky, though, not for long.

When his luck runs out, Yongguk and his car disappear along with it.

 

* * *

 

By the second day, Daehyun’s already lost hope of anyone showing up for him. He hadn’t given them his father’s contact information, and he hoped to somehow get away before they did find him.

He’d have given them his brother’s number if he knew it, if he knew where his hyung was at all.

And it was stupid to rely on Yongguk to help him; the man had disappeared as soon as Daehyun had been caught, after all.

The local police station’s holding cell isn’t the most comfortable place to be, but it’s also not all that bad. He’s guaranteed to be fed, at least. He’s being kept with the other juveniles, a kid who had been caught vandalizing for the fourth time and another runaway who had stolen money from a ramen stand. It’s not exactly the most intimidating line up, but still, he doesn’t belong there and the other boys seem to sense it as well.

He’s about to resign to his fate, slowly coming to accept the idea that he will be sent back to Busan soon enough, when the cell is unlocked and the guard is gesturing for him to exit. The officer leads him to the front where his little backpack is returned to him and he is lectured for a few minutes before he is led to the waiting area and told he is free to go, that someone has come for him.

Daehyun looks around in slight fear and bafflement but then his eyes catch on a man walking towards him.

It’s Yongguk.

Only… it’s not.

This man, with Yongguk’s face and Yongguk’s hands, and even Yongguk’s rare smile, carries himself with something distinctly different. His jeans look relatively new and so does the crisp white button down he’s wearing, sleeves pushed up and revealing tattooed forearms.

“Jung Daehyun-ssi?”

“Y-yes?”

The man holds out a hand that Daehyun grasps softly, head still reeling.

“I’m Yongnam.”

 

* * *

 

“I talked to the store owner. Seeing as you were just a kid, and this was your first offense, and all you took was a couple bags of milk bread, she agreed not to go ahead with charges. Sorry I took so long, Yongguk usually doesn’t call me for anything and I forgot about all the voicemails until late last night.”

“Oh…” Daehyun looks around wondering where the mentioned man is, “I’m, um, I’m sorry, I’m really thankful, I just…”

“You’re confused. I know. Come on,” he guides Daehyun out the front of the station with a hand gently on his back, “Yongguk’s outside. He…doesn’t do well with cops so we thought it’d be best if I came to get you.”

He can see the familiar truck, parked at the edge of the lot as Yongguk leans against the hood, a cigarette between two slender fingers.

As they approach, Yongnam walks around to the passenger side and lets himself in leaving the two outside some semblance of privacy.

Yongguk stubs out the cigarette when Daehyun comes to stand in front of him, despite it seeming fresh lit, and Daehyun tries not to read into it. His voice is rougher than Daehyun remembers.

“You okay?”

Daehyun nods, silent.

Yongguk scratches the back of his head.

“I knew you would be. I knew they wouldn’t- If I had gotten caught, they would’ve…” he trails off and sighs, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left like that. It was just instinct. I called Yongnam the second I found the nearest payphone, I knew he could help.”

Daehyun’s still angry, but a bigger part of him, he is ashamed to say, is happy, so happy that Yongguk is here, that he didn’t just leave Daehyun alone.

“Hey,” Yongguk is cupping his cheeks and tilting his head up, looking right into his eyes, “You didn’t think I’d completely abandon you like that, did you?”

Yongguk pulls him into a one armed hug as he turns them around and opens the door for Daehyun, and he has to remember that despite it all, Yongguk’s first instinct had been to leave.

Still, Yongguk had come back.

Daehyun didn’t ever think he’d miss the smell of cloves, leather and ramen seasoning, of all things, but he does, and he’s not as upset as he probably should be that this old car, with its rusted frame and frayed upholstery has become home.

 

* * *

 

Yongnam offers Daehyun his room, but he refuses, saying he can share the pull out couch with Yongguk.

The elder twin looks between them with a disapproving frown but when Daehyun insists he doesn’t argue further. They are left in the living room, lights out and the sounds of the city murmuring below.

Yongguk has some scruples, it seems, and apparently those include not fucking Daehyun on his brother’s couch while he sleeps down the hallway, even as the younger presses up against his side, a leg curled around one of the elder’s.

Daehyun isn’t sure if Yongguk allows the tender intimacy because he needs, _wants_ , it just as much, but he takes advantage of it and rests against the man’s shoulder, a hand curled on his chest.

“You didn’t tell me you had a twin.”

“Now you know.”

Daehyun plucks up all his courage before he leans up, pressing his plush lips to Yongguk’s cheek, lingering for just a beat. The elder’s eyes are watching him curiously in the dark.

“Don’t think I’ve forgiven you. But, I didn’t think you’d come...and you did.”

Yongguk doesn’t say anything to that, but when Daehyun’s head drops back down to his shoulder, a large hand settles in his hair, stroking it as the exhaustion catches up with him.

He thinks he hears a deep murmur, just as sleep takes him into its embrace.

“You deserve better than me.”

 

* * *

 

He spends the morning wrapped in a blanket and sitting by the large window in Yongnam’s living room, following raindrops as they travel down the glass and blur the sleepy city below.

Yongnam walks in, hair curly and smile soft as he nods at the boy, “Couldn’t sleep?”

Daehyun shakes his head, “I always wake up early.”

The elder kicks Yongguk awake, shoving his twin to the bathroom as he heads to the kitchen to start on breakfast and soon enough they can hear the shower running. He uncurls himself from his spot, depositing the blanket on the pullout bed and walks over to where Yongnam is.

He helps with breakfast and they sit at the tiny table, Daehyun eyeing the food and cautiously moving a single kimchi pancake to his plate.

Yongnam frowns, pushing the plates of food towards him, “Eat, Daehyun-ah. As much as you want. Please.”

They eat in silence until Yongnam breaks it, reaching over for another piece of slightly burnt toast.

“You in some sort of trouble? I mean…aside from yesterday.”

Daehyun hesitates, wondering what exactly constituted “trouble” in the elder’s mind. He slowly shakes his head.

Yongnam sighs, “Look, my brother isn’t a completely horrible person. But he’s also not someone a kid like you should be hanging out with.”

Daehyun tries not to bristle at that, “A kid like me?”

“You have your whole life ahead of you. And you’re not going to get anywhere with him. Do you plan on living in his truck forever?”

He doesn’t.

It’s a stupid idea, and Yongguk probably doesn’t want him there much, anyway.

He looks to where the elder’s shoes are by the door, worn and only half-together, like Yongguk himself, and Daehyun doesn’t really want to leave him either. It doesn’t seem right. They could be good for each other, couldn’t they?

He knows Yongguk will never give him what he wants, will never live with him in a shared little apartment above a local store, spending mornings manoeuvring around each other in a tiny kitchen and nights spent in each other’s arms, together even if they were alone.

He’s embarrassed he’s even thought about it that far.

Yongnam’s eyes are kind, face serene as he regards him, and it’s almost like Yongguk is looking at him, Yongguk as he could have been, and Daehyun wonders why he couldn’t just fall for someone like this, why he was like a moth constantly flying straight into flames.

But the burn melts away the coldness of neglect, and he would rather feel that then the numbness of nothing at all.

 

* * *

 

The next afternoon, they bid Yongnam farewell and pile back into Yongguk’s old truck.

“Where are we going?”

Yongguk turns the key and the old car rumbles to life.

“Seoul.”

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://flamesandembers.tumblr.com/)


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